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I maintain that Havrilesky's writing is terrible, but I would never call her a racist, as several posters have done. We should have reached a place in this country where it is possible to critique and even mock black people, as long as race isn't the criterion for mocking. It will probably take a decade or so before the same is possible when critiquing Hispanic and gay public figures.
And as for the SNL performers, yes, they had a few good movies. But their performances were anything but consistent. Bill Murray made "Ghostbusters," but also "The Razor's Edge," where he unsuccessfully tried to attack a deadly serious dramatic role. More appropriate to the season, in "Scrooged," he not only was unconvincing as a cynical evil guy, but made his "redemption" sound like another con job. Only worth a brief mention are his unimpressive performances in "Quick Change," "Charlie's Angels" and "Osmosis Jones."
Listing Chevy Chase's disasters would be too cruel. Dan Aykroyd, ostensibly the "smarter" of the Blues Brothers, has had decreasing film fortunes since Belushi's death; perhaps he did need a partner to work off to be funny, and Jim Belushi hasn't worked out.
Every performer makes bad movies, but I argue the SNL guys had a higher percentage of duds, because they were cast specifically on their reputations as "funny guys" who would rescue pathetic scripts and productions. That is the sad fate of Eddie Murphy, who was cast in "Beverly Hills Cop" when most of the A-list male actors turned it down. When he turned around that particular sow's ear, he wound up in "Holy Man," "Vampire in Brooklyn," "Boomerang" and other awful scripts.
Perhaps the SNL guys took every paycheck waved in front of them, because they didn't know when the checks would stop or they would only be considered top actors while they were actually working. Or maybe they lacked any ability to tell a good script from a bad one. Certainly the studios didn't see any need to protect actors by demanding good stories, they way they did for Bob Hope in his prime. Whatever the reason, the SNL performers won't even have Hope's record - and for a guy who was "America's favorite comedian," look how fast Hope has fallen after his death.
